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samus 2 days ago

The Gulf states are not any more willing than the USA at invading Iran with ground troops. The only thing that changes by making them angry is that slightly more missiles fly into Iran. Which is already accounted for and won't magically reopen the strait.

Pay08 2 days ago | parent [-]

Actually, Saudi Arabia might get involved.

don_esteban a day ago | parent | next [-]

I doubt US wants them involved.

The coordination will be difficult (I doubt the Saudis are properly, NATO - style, trained for joint actions with USA).

Their involvement would also severely raise the risk of friendly fire (see the F15's over Kuwait).

andriy_koval a day ago | parent | prev [-]

they couldn't defeat much smaller and weaker Yemen.

samus 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Did that involve boot on the grounds or just shelling via cruise missiles or from air? Also, Yemen is poorer, but has more or less the same population as Saudi Arabia.

Pay08 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

That doesn't mean they can't be useful, and they do already have a chip on their shoulder wrt Iran because of Iran's support for the Houthis.

andriy_koval a day ago | parent | next [-]

Yemen situation is just good indication of how useful they could be, and answer is not much. They don't have good functioning military.

throwup238 a day ago | parent [-]

Their military is a paper tiger like Saddam’s was during the Iraq invasion. Modern gear but without the doctrine or officer corps to effectively use it.

My experience while working there years ago was that their armed forces were a weird mix of coup proofing and a nepotistic dumping ground for family members who couldn’t be trusted to help run the family business.

sysguest a day ago | parent | prev [-]

well with all the oil money, saudis and UAE don't even have to send their own citizens:

they can just pay gurkha mercenaries for the job